Woman dies after mauling by daughter's pet dogs

Neela Debnath

Neela Debnath is a member of the Independent's Online editorial team. She has an MA in Journalism (NCTJ accredited) from Brunel University. She is interested in current affairs, media and dipping into other areas of journalism.

A woman has died after she was mauled by her daughter's pet dogs as she went to feed them last night.

Gloria Knowles, 71, was attacked in her daughter's back garden in Morden, South London by the five dogs.

The exact circumstances of how she died are unknown but the police have launched an investigation into the incident.

The dogs which include two French Mastiffs, two American bull dogs and a small mongrel have now been seized by the police and a postmortem will be taking place tomorrow to establish the cause of death.

None of the dogs falls into the breeds banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act, which names pitt bull terriers, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argetino and Fila Brasileiro as illegal to own in Britain.

Neighbours heard screams coming from the house where Mrs Knowles' daughter lived.

One neighbour told the Evening Standard: "The dogs had not been out all day. Gloria, from what we can gather, came in to feed them and either fell on the ground before being attacked by the dogs, or the dogs attacked her and she fell over".

"The police said they didn't know whether the dogs attacked her and she had a heart attack or she had a heart attack and then the dogs attacker her.

"They are nice dogs but if they jumped up in excitement on you it would knock you over. They were going to get bigger because they are only young.”

Mrs Knowles was a widow and lived in the house next door to her daughter Beverley and her husband.